WHPP Consortium taking stock of the project’s second year and drawing up plans for the next one

21^st December 2024, Sarajevo – The last days of 2024 were a time to look back on the second year of the WHPP project, and to plan ahead for the third and final year of the joint efforts of the national ice hockey federations of Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia aimed at the development of women’s ice hockey in the Danube region.

In Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the representatives of the respective national ice hockey organisations attended the annual Consortium meeting to weigh in on the various topics on the agenda. They were joined by the other Consortium members from partner institutions and bodies, namely the Sports Institute of Finland, the University of Ljubljana and the International Ice Hockey Federation.

The Consortium addressed operational and strategic challenges faced by each federation, emphasizing the importance of knowledge exchange and collaborative problem-solving to advance women’s participation in ice hockey throughout the region.

Members of the Consortium thus reviewed the 2nd WHPP Ice Hockey Festival & Academy, which was held in Klagenfurt (AUT) in April 2024. While the initial impression reports had already been done directly after the conclusion of the event, the meeting in Sarajevo provided a platform for more in-depth reviews, educational outputs and evaluation.

The respective lessons learnt from both WHPP ice hockey festivals in Maribor (2023) and Klagenfurt (2024) are of important value for the planning process of the 3rd WHPP Ice Hockey Festival & Academy, which is to be held in Zagreb (CRO) in April 2025.  The event’s focus remains on combining competitive tournaments with educational workshops to benefit players, coaches, officials, and other stakeholders involved in women’s ice hockey. Similar to the previous two festivals, the Zagreb edition will thus also include all elements of the previous ones: on-the-ice training, off-the-ice workshops and a final tournament as a practical implementation of the first two elements.

The Sports Institute of Finland and the International Ice Hockey Federation put forward the initiative to organise a WHPP Open Day in the ice hockey clubs of the participating countries, which would take place during the upcoming IIHF World Girls’ Ice Hockey Weekend. This could contribute to the project’s visibility and further promote the women’s game.

The Consortium also took stock of the preparation of the WHPP output publication “Equity in Ice Hockey” which will be one of the final deliverables of this three-year project co-funded by the European Union.

The WHPP project aims to promote equal opportunities in women’s ice hockey by enhancing governance practices, raising awareness, and providing education within sports organizations.